Lace-up device



Nov. 12 1957 1-1.5. PAPE 2,812,850

LACE-UP DEVICE Filed July 29, 1952 JNVENTOR. HARR Y E. PAPE J Mafia Q ATTOR EY.

LACE-UP DEVICE Harry E. Pape, Norwood, Pa., assignor cose Corporation, Philadelphia, Pa., Delaware to American Visa corporation of The present invention relates to apparatus for handling running strands and particularly to a portable device that may be used to capture a continuous strand carried by one piece of equipment Wherefrom the strand is transferred or laced to another piece of equipment and the device then detached from'the running strand without the necessity of breaking it.

Continuous strand processing machinery may be laced by manual manipulation at speeds up to approximately 100 meters per minute whereas mechanical lacing devices are required at substantially higher speeds. In the prior art, various devices, such as suction tubes, jets, picking wheels, and strand-leading belts, are resorted to in transferring rapidly running strands from one process station to another. However, no system is heretofore disclosed which enables a relatively unskilled operator to lace a strand through a series of process stations by means of a single article of equipment when such lacing involves repeatedly capturing the strand from one station and then separating it from the lacing apparatus after applying it to a desired point of entry to another station without breaking the strand.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a device for continuously advancing a running yarn which may be disengaged from the yarn while the yarn is moving with respect to the device. It is another object to provide a device in accordance with the object just recited which requires little skill to operate and may be used in as leisurely a manner as required within the skill of the operator to apply yarn accurately to a desired point of engagement with another strand-forwarding member. 'It is still another object to provide a portable lacing-up device capable of accomplishing the aforenamed objects, that may be used repeatedly to lace a strand through a series of process stations. Still another object is to provide an inexpensive portable apparatus for facilitating lacing procedures that may be used in lieu of stationary lacing aids which are necessarily more complicated, plural in occurrence when more than one lacing station is required, and therefore relatively expensive. Other objects,

features, and advantages will become apparent from the following description of the invention. and the drawing relating thereto in which:

Fig. 1 is a section taken along line II of Fig. 2 of a device constructed in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 2 is an end view of the device shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3. is a section taken along line IIIIII of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is another section of the device of Fig. 1 taken along line IVIV thereof;

Fig. 5 is a longitudinal section of a modified device;

Fig. 6 is a section taken along line VI-VI of Fig. 5;

Fig. 7 is an end view of the device illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6;

Fig. 8 is alongitudinal section of another modified device;

Fig. 9is a transverse section taken along line IX-IX of Fig. 8; and

"ice

Fig. 10 is a side view of a part of the device shown in Figs. 8 and 9.

In furtherance of the above-stated objects of the invention, a device is provided for temporarily receiving a running yarn and constructed so that the yarn may be released from the device without being broken, such as when it is transferred to a take-up mechanism. The device has a body provided with a passageway for the movement of a strand therethrough and structure for directing a fluid supplied to the device under pressure along a path extending within the device and past the end of the passageway in intersecting relation therewith so as to either induce by vacuum the passage of air or other fluid through the passageway and/or to pull the strand by frictional contact of the fluid discharged from the device at high velocity whereby the strand is propelled lengthwise through the passageway. A portion of the device may be movable with respect to another portion to open the passageway in a lateral direction along its entire length.

Figs. 1 to 4 illustrate one embodiment of the invention, namely, a device 4 which comprises an outer wallmember or casing 5 of circular cross section, a rotatable tubular element 6 having secured thereto a control handle 8,

a sleeve member 9 secured within the casing 5, and a cap 10 having a flange 10a which overlaps the outer sur-,

face of the casing 5. The sleeve member 9 may be shaped to provide a press fit between its exterior surface and the interior surface of the casing. The sleeve member also has a central bore which is complementary to the outer surface of the tubular element 6, i. e., the element fits the bore preferably within about 0.003 inch to prevent appreciable leakage but to permit turning of the element with the member 9. The member 9 has a generally semi-circular section 12 which engages a tapered interior surface 14 of the casing. Portion 12 thus does not completely occupy the space surrounding the element 6 and leaves a hollow region 15 within the casing for receiving compressed air or other stored gas through a tube 16 which is attached to the casing and extends through its wall to connect the region 15 with an air supply. The casing 5 has an aperture or passageway 18 contiguous with a clearance between the adjacent end portion of the element 6 and the surrounding interior surface of the casing through which air may escape from the region 15. Rapid discharge of air past the end 19 of the tubular element tends to lower the pressure within the passageway of the element 6 below atmospheric and to induce the travel of air or other fluid therethrough in the direction indicated by the arrow. The disposition of the element 6 lengthwise of the other portions of the device is determined by a shoulder 21 of the element 6.

which seats on the annular end surface of the sleeve member 9 and fits within a complementary annular recess of the cap 10.

The members 5 and 9 have longitudinal slots 23 and 24 which are maintained permanently in radial alignment with the longitudinal axis of the device 4. The cap 10 also has a slot 25 extending in the same general radially extending plane as slots 23 and 24. The tubular element 6 also has a slot 26 such as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. By manipulation of the handle 8, the element 6 may be rotated to bring the slot 26 into radial alignment with the slots 23, 24, and 25 to make the passageway of the tubular element 6 accessible from a lateral direction along the entire length of the device. A strand may be then transferred into and aligned to pass lengthwise through the element 6.

The separate portions of the device 4 may be fabricated in any convenient manner such as molding them from any' of a great variety of organic synthetic thermoplastic or thermosetting resins, hard rubber, or by casting Patented Nov. 12, 1957 or machining the parts from metal that is non-corrosive with respect to the materials encountered in a selected strand processing system.

Figs; 5, 6, and7 illustrate a modified device for handling continuous running strands which comprise an outer wall member or casing 31, a flanged coupling 32, and a strand conducting member 33 which is rotatable with respect to the casing and the coupling. The device 30 comprises a structure which enables the separate portions thereof to be readily molded from vulcanizable materials, or thermosetting or thermoplastic synthetic resins. The casing 31 is generally symmetrical and annular with respect to a longitudinal axis and comprises a substantially annular wall 35 with radially inwardly extending projections 36, 37, and 38 which terminate (in the longitudinal direction) at the section line 6-6 of Fig. 5. The projections have inner arcuate surfaces 3?, 40, and 41 disposed concentrically with respect to the axis of the casing to center the portion 33a of the strandconducting member 33 shown in Fig. 6. The projections also have end surfaces 43, 44, and 45 which lie in the same plane as the end surface of the casing upon which a disc portion 33b of the member 33 seats when held in loose frictional contact and rotatable relationship therewith by the coupling 32 which screws onto the end portion of the casing 31 against a shoulder 47 thereof. The threaded section of the coupling preferably has suflicient length so that its radially inwardly extending flange portion has a slight clearance (measured in an axial direction) with the surface of the disc portion which it overlaps to allow the member 33 to turn freely.

The member 33 has a central passageway 4-9 which extends entirely lengthwise thereof and terminates at one end within a trumpet-shaped portion 51 of the member 33. The member 33 has a slot 52 extending its entire length which opens all portions of the passageway 49 in a lateral direction. The casing 31 also has a slot 53 extending along its entire length which separates the projections 3'7 and 38 and is radially aligned with the slot 54 formed in the coupling 32. The portion 33a of the strand conducting member, by filling the central region between the inward projections of the casing, divides the interior of the easing into two regions 56 and 57 which extend into the discharge aperture 58 provided at the end of the casing. Within the wall 35 is a threaded recess 61 in threaded relationship with a tube 62 connected to a fluid supplying means (not shown). Branch ducts 63 and 64 connect the recess 61 with the regions 56 and 57 respectively so that air or other fluid may be passed into these regions and then discharged outwardly therefrom past the end portion of the member 33 through the aperture 58. Rapid passage of fluid from the regions 56 and 57 reduces the pressure in the passageway 49 below that of the atmosphere and thus suction is produced at the large end of the passageway within the flared portion 51 of the member 33.

The device 30 is illustrated with the member 33 in the position wherein its slot 52 is aligned with the slot 53 of the casing 31, thereby adapting the device to receive a strand from a lateral direction. The device may be used, when adjusted in this manner, by applying it to a running strand traveling continuously between spaced objects without breaking the strand in order to lace the device. Once the strand is passing through the passageway 49, the member 33 is turned approximately 180 until the slot 52 is closed by the surface 39. Flat handles or fins 65 and 66 provide gripping surfaces which facilitate turning of the member 33. The strand, thus captured, is continuously transferred therethrough by the action ofthe fluid passing from the tube 62 through the device and then from the aperture 53. The strand may be broken along a portion discharged from the device and then the free end contiguous with the portion advancing through the device applied, by manipulation of the device 30, to any desired strand advancing equipment. When this is accomplished, the strand may be separated from the device 30 by simply turning the member 33 until the slots are in the alignment shown in Figs. 5 to 7 whereupon the device 30 may be maneuvered to remove the running strand from its passageway 49. The device 30, on account of the flared entrance-port of the passageway 49 within the portion 51 of the member 33, may be used to capture the leading end of a running yarn as well as continuous unbroken yarns.

A third embodiment of the invention is illustrated in Figs. 8 to 10. It has been discovered that when water or some liquid of similar viscosity is used as the fluid for operating a device constructed in accordance with the present invention, suflicient draft for pulling a running yarn through the device and keeping the slack out of a running yarn advancing thereinto may be created without the necessity of closing the laterally opened portion of the wall which defines the passageway through which the strand is advanced. That is to say, the provision of a center tube member having a slot along one side thereof as provided in the previously described embodiments may e fixed relative to other portions of the device (rather than being rotatable) with the slots thereof in permanent alignment with respect to an axially extending single plane. Such a device may thus have a simpler construction than the devices hereinbefore described. The device 70 of Figs. 8 to 10 comprises an outer wall member or casing 71 having an apertured frustoconical strand-discharging section and a generally cylindrical section for receiving a sleeve member 72. The inner contour of the casing is of the same general shape as its outer surface. The sleeve member 72 has a central bore '73 (see Fig. 10) in which a generally tubular member 75 is secured. As shown in Figure 9, the longitudinal opening in the tubular member 75 forms a central passageway through the device. The sleeve member 72 has a semi-circular portion 77 partially defined by a pair of surfaces 78 extending parallel to its axis. These surfaces join with another surface 79 which terminates in the peripheral surface of the sleeve and extends at some angle such as l35 with the surfaces 78. The exterior cylindrical surface of the sleeve adapts it to be press-fitted within the member 70. The tubular member 75 is in turn pressfitted within the bore of the sleeve. The casing 71, sleeve 72, and the tubular member 75 are slotted to provide as access 79 to the passageway 76 from a lateral direction along the entire length of the device. Since the tubular member does not turn within the sleeve, the aligned slots in the three concentric parts of the device may be constructed with diverging surfaces, as shown in Fig. 9, to facilitate the transfer of strands into and out of the passageway 76. If desired, the members 72 and 75 may be fabricated as a single part by application of conventional molding techniques relating to the molding of synthetic thermoplastic resins.

Such a device works quite efficiently when it is supplied with water under pressure through an open region 81 which is formed between the member 75 and the inner surface of the member 71 by the cutaway construction of member 72 resulting in the surfaces 78 and 79. A tube 80 is screwed or otherwise fastened within an aperture through the portion of the wall of the casing 71 overlying the open region 81. Water is supplied under pressure through the tube 80 and discharged from region 81 through the clearance 83 between adjacent concentric tapered surfaces of the casing 71 and the end portion of the tubular member 75, and through the aperture 82. The strand is transferred through the passageway 76 in the direction of the arrow of Fig. 8; the stream of water discharged from the aperture 82 carrying the strand may be utilized to aim the strand at any point desired along the movin strandadvancing surface of a take-up device. The strandadvancing draft developed in the use of the device 75 is derived primarily from the frictional contact of the liquid stream discharged therefrom with the strand which is placed within the passageway 76, although there is some suction developed within the passageway and the slot 79'.

While preferred embodiments of the invention have been shown and described, it is to be understood that changes and variations may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appending claims.

1 claim:

1. A device for advancing a continuously running yarn comprising a casing having an opening extending lengthwise therethrough and terminating in an exit aperture of reduced size, a sleeve disposed within said casing and having a central passageway extending lengthwise therethrough, said sleeve having one end terminating within said casing in adjacent and spaced relationship with said casing exit aperture, said one end of said sleeve having its external surface tapering toward said exit aperture and cooperating with the adjacent internal surface of said casing to form an annular orifice therebetween which extends concentrically about said one end of the sleeve and communicates with said exit aperture, a fluid delivery duct having one end passing through a wall of said casing, at least one fluid receiving chamber formed between portions of said casing and sleeve and adjacent said one end of said fluid delivery duct, said chamber extending partially about said sleeve and communicating with said am nular orifice, and a slot extending radially through said casing and sleeve along the entire length of said device and communicating with said passageway.

2. A device as set forth in claim 1 further including radially directed projections formed on the inner wall surface of said casing and extending substantially lengthwise thereof, said projections having concentric arcuate surfaces in engagement with said sleeve, a pair of said projections being separated by said radially extending slot, an enlarged centrally apertured member disposed against the end portions of said casing and sleeve remote from said exit aperture, a slot extending radially through said member and in alignment with said first mentioned slot, and a pair of fluid receiving chambers defined by said projections and disposed in opposed relationship and on opposite sides of said sleeve.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,641,276 5 Huntington Sept. 6, 1927 2,412,403 Jackson et al Dec. 10, 1946 2,622,306 Anderson Dec. 23, 1952 2,648,890 McDonald Aug. 18, 1953 2,672,712 Reiter Mar. 23, 1954 2,681,729 Griset June 22, 1954 

